Like the opening scene of Francis Ford Coppola's oft over-looked masterpiece "The Conversation," 200 of us sat with headphones attached to our heads and monitored a desperate conversation involving a Hitchcockian MacGuffin object hidden a locker within the bowels of the Whitehall Ferry Terminal.
We can't quite see the performers for a while, due to the ebb and flow of people coming and going to Staten Island; and we don't really know what they're talking about. Before long, we, as an audience sitting on risers in the middle of a busy ferry terminal become a performance ourselves with the hundreds of "innocent bystanders" watching us look back and watch them. It becomes a standoff of audience headphones vs. travellers' iPods. Surveillance vs. Participation. Reality vs. Fantasy. Who's watching who?
Through it all, the wizards at Back to Back seamlessly move between the throngs and as we get our bearings, we become engrossed in the rising stakes and emotional pull of the two friends. One wants to sell the item. The other is having an emotional crisis. The seller won't leave his friend. The buyer is anxious.
A simple equation that works to incredible effect with the backdrop of security, eavesdropping, and constant monitoring.As the final line in "The Conversation" ominously states,
"We'll be listening to you."
Posted by Brian Costello
PICA
UTR Press Corps
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